


Gut Himdah, Gut Hahnu (Far Lands, Far Dreams)

by dark_brohood



Series: Dii Zeymah, Dii Hokoron (My Brother, My Enemy) [2]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: College of Winterhold - Freeform, College of Winterhold Questline, Dark Brotherhood (Elder Scrolls) - Freeform, F/F, M/M, Man Out of Time, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Skyrim Main Quest, Thieves Guild (Elder Scrolls) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29509224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dark_brohood/pseuds/dark_brohood
Summary: Kaielyssa Deseriene and her wife Haleyni Teledyn are not your average couple: She's a thief, and she's an assassin. When they go to the old Nordic Settlement of Silent Moons Camp to check out the supposedly magic forge, they get more than they bargained for when they find an unknown passageway that leads to more of the seemingly small ruin.Saving a man that had been trapped in a sarcophagus for gods know how long, who is very confused about his surroundings, they decide to help him find out what's happened to him and why he was in there. When Kaielyssa's twin brother Daedras decides to bring him to the College of Winterhold for the archmage to check him out, everything goes spiralling out of control after an excursion to the ruins of Saarthal.Magic and chaos surround Thayne Kjerunnsson's life as he tries to figure out how long his brother trapped him in the sarcophagus, all while hiding his High Priest past from the people who saved him. Trying to find a way back to the life he knew, he knows it's all for naught when a dragon attacks, and he recognises who it is.The wheel has turned, and it has turned to Thayne.
Relationships: Male Dovahkiin | Dragonborn/Original Male Character(s), Original Character/Original Character, Original Female Character(s)/Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s)/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Dii Zeymah, Dii Hokoron (My Brother, My Enemy) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100594
Comments: 9
Kudos: 5





	1. Silent Moons

**Author's Note:**

> Book 2! Book 2! Book 2!
> 
> I'm so excited for this. I've been thinking about it since before I started book 1. I hope you enjoy it!

Kaielyssa had never liked the wilderness. Coming from a noble family in High Rock, she and her brother had grown up with the finer things in life. It was a wonder that Daedras had left because of a dream of learning magic, and the Mages Guild no longer existed. Kaielyssa had followed him to Skyrim, because that was what good twins did. They supported their sibling no matter what, and she was excited for what he could accomplish at the College of Winterhold.

She, however, ended up going a completely different path. Somehow, and she still wasn't sure exactly how it happened, she had joined the Thieves Guild out of Riften. And despite all the thievery and the lawbreaking, she enjoyed it. And if she hadn't joined the Thieves Guild, she never would have met her wife.

Which brings her back to the wilderness.

"I don't know why I couldn't have stayed in Whiterun," she pouted, crossing her arms as her wife led the way through Whiterun's tundra. "I doubt there's going to be anything valuable there, anyway, it's been plundered so many times."

Haleyni threw a grin over her shoulder at her wife. She knew Kaielyssa didn't like trekking through the mud and the brush, but sometimes it was necessary.

"Silent Moons Camp apparently has a magic forge in it. I want to see it."

Kaielyssa huffed. "If you wanted to see a magic forge, the Skyforge is inside the walls of Whiterun. You know, _that_ city," she said, pointing at the walled city they had left an hour earlier. "We don't have to go through the wilderness."

"You can always go back."

She huffed, and Haleyni laughed. No matter how much she complained, she always followed her wife.

Haleyni had grown up in Morrowind, as an orphan living on the streets of Ebonheart. She knew exactly how to navigate strange places and how to survive on the little that you have. Kaielyssa hadn't, and she never held that against her. She was glad the woman she loved had been able to have a happy childhood, even if she hadn't.

As they approached the camp they saw several bandits milling around, some talking to each other, others doing their own thing. There was a man in only a fur loincloth patrolling the steps up to what could be the forge, sparks of magic coming out of his fingertips as he paced. Haleyni crouched down by a riverbed, making sure there were no mudcrabs nearby, and Kaielyssa followed suit.

"Of course there's bandits here," Haleyni muttered. "Any qualms with killing them?"

"Obviously not, I married an assassin."

She smirked, taking out her knives. Kaielyssa unsheathed her sword, which pulsed orange with an enchantment. She nodded, and together the two of them rushed for the ruin.

It didn't take long for them to kill the inhabitants of Silent Moons Camp. They blocked and parried and slashed at the bandits that did the exact same thing to them, leaving their corpses broken and bloodied on the floor. There was one guy in the actual forge area, who was reading a book, and hadn't even been able to draw his weapon before there was a knife sticking out of his throat, which had been thrown by Haleyni.

She retrieved the dagger as Kaielyssa looked at the forge.

"It doesn't seem magic," she said, nose scrunched up.

"There's definitely something magic about it," her wife said, picking up an iron sword that glowed green. She showed it to Kaielyssa, who took it off her and held it up to the sun.

"Hmm," she said, and handed it back. "Even if the forge isn't magic we could sell that for a nice price."

Haleyni shook her head, a grin on her face. "You're always thinking about money."

"What did you expect? I'm a thief."

They grinned at each other as she put the sword in a nearby sheath, placing it inside her pack. They grabbed anything else that looked like it had value and pocketed it, before heading down the stairs and entering the ruin itself.

It wasn't much. They had both been in grander ruins, and the entrance was just a small room with a couple shelves. They weren't impressed as they continued through the ruin, killing the few bandits that were inside.

The final chamber looked like it was being mined out by the bandits, as one of the walls had a small tunnel leading off it, leading to a dead end. There was a second one that looped around, but there was nothing in it.

"Do you think they thought there was more to the ruin?" Haleyni asked as she took a coinpurse off the dead bandit leader's corpse. 

Kaielyssa rubbed her chin, thinking. "Maybe. If they did, it might mean there's an untouched part of it. Maybe this could have been a whole city at some point."

"But why would the ancient Nords block off most of the city?"

She shrugged. "Maybe they didn't want to. Maybe they had to."

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe something happened to the city and they had no choice."

"Maybe."

Kaielyssa went to inspect the tunnel closer. Haleyni rolled her eyes, a small smile on her face. Her wife was always hungry for gold, no matter what. She usually let her roam off by herself when they were at the ends of ruins and crypts, because somehow she was able to find gold and artefacts in places Haleyni wouldn't even think to look. Maybe this would be one of those times.

Kaielyssa came back after a moment and grabbed the closest pickaxe. Ignoring her wife's questioning stare, she went back into the tunnel and swung it at the wall. She grunted as the blade met rock, before pulling it back and trying again.

"What are you doing?" Haleyni asked.

Another swing. "I felt a air current in a crack. There's something behind this wall."

Kaielyssa swung again, the _clank_ filling the air.

"Step back," Haleyni said, and she did what she was told. She stepped into the tunnel with a fireball in hand, letting it grow and grow until it was as big as her head, and she threw it at the wall, throwing up a ward at the last second.

The wall exploded outward, rocks and dust filling the air. They coughed as the dust settled, and when the cloud was gone they saw a chamber on the other side of the tunnel. They stepped into it, smelling the stale air. It was pitch black, the light from the tunnel only reaching so far. Kaielyssa reached into her pack and pulled out a torch, handing it over to Haleyni to light. She did, handing it back as she produced her own magelight that bobbed over her head, creating a dome of light around her.

It was a medium-sized chamber, but it was the largest in Silent Moons so far. Sarcophagi lined the walls, standing on their ends, and there were two rows of sarcophagus on either side of them, going from one side of the chamber to the other, with a path in the middle leading to a stairway that went down.

Haleyni looked at her wife. "You were right."


	2. The Man in the Sarcophagus

Silent Moons Camp was larger than Kaielyssa and Haleyni ever thought possible. As they made their way through the ruin of what looked like a proper city they saw side passages and long halls and chambers full of sarcophagi. There were several halls filled with dead ancient Nords and Atmorans, their bodies resting inside the walls, only their heads visible to them. Others you could see their sides, and even fewer were standing in a hole that had been built into the wall. From what Kaielyssa's brother Daedras had told her about Nordic history, these were reserved for the higher members of the Dragon Cult.

Something that was different about this ruin that they hadn't seen in any others was that there were no draugr. Sure, there were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of bodies lining every inch of the city, but there were none that were walking around. Kaielyssa didn't think that was possible; even if there wasn't a Dragon Priest in the city, there were draugr that came alive and gave their essence to whoever had ruled the city.

But the further into the ruin they got, the more they realised how right Kaielyssa had been. Something had happened in this ruin, something that caused the ancient Nords to seal it away and not cast their curse of undeath on them.

The only question was, what had happened? What was so horrible that they had to seal up most of the city?

There weren't even spiders or skeevers.

They entered a large chamber, this one with sarcophagi lining the edges. There was nothing else in the chamber, except for a lone sarcophagus lying on a raised dais in the exact centre of the room. There were two draugr standing guard, one on either side, and over the sarcophagus were two metal beams, like it was keeping the sarcophagus shut. Like it was keeping something inside it.

As they stepped closer, the two draugr stepped away from the sarcophagus. Kaielyssa dropped the torch she had been carrying and unsheathed her sword, and her wife took out her twin daggers. The charged at the draugr, one wielding a greatsword, the other a bow and arrows, an axe at its side.

Kaielyssa slashed at the draugr with the greatsword while Haleyni threw one of her daggers at the archer, hitting it square in the chest. Kaielyssa dodged an attack from the draugr in front of her, slashing at its waist and making that part of its body burst into flames. Their blades connected, both of them pushing against each other as hard as they could, Kaielyssa staring deeply into the glowing eyes of the draugr that didn't seem to blink.

She ducked out of the way, twirled around, and stabbed it down through the heart to the hilt of her sword. It said something in a guttural language she didn't know as its eyes stopped glowing. She placed her foot on its chest and pushed it off her blade as Haleyni managed to fell the second draugr.

She wiped the undead goop off her blade onto her armour and sheathed it, approaching the locked sarcophagus. There was a place for a key on each of the bars. Hopefully they were on the bodies of the draugr they had just slain.

"What do you think?" she asked her wife, her fingers tracing the hole where the key would go. "Should we open it?"

"Are you insane?" Haleyni asked, searching the draugr she had killed for valuables. "The person in there is probably the reason why the city had been sealed off."

"We've done stupid things in the past, My Love. May I remind you about the time you got drunk with a Daedric Prince and married a Hagraven?"

Haleyni winced at the memory. It had happened just after the two of them had met, which was right after Kaielyssa had joined the Thieves Guild in Riften.

She pulled a circular stone from the body, the exact size of the hole in the metal bar. Seeing her wife's excited face, she sighed and stood up. Squealing slightly, Kaielyssa grabbed the second key from the first draugr's body, and placed it in the hole on the sarcophagus and turned. Her wife did the same thing.

The was a scraping sound as the metal bars slowly opened up, revealing the now unlocked lid of the sarcophagus.

"Ready when you are," Haleyni said.

* * *

Thayne Kjerunnsson had known nothing but darkness for so long he forgot what light looked like. He didn't know how long he had been trapped in the sarcophagus, but he knew it had been a very, very long time.

He hadn't been able to sleep since he had been imprisoned, hadn't been able to do anything but feel time slowly trickle by. And it was excruciating.

He thought about what his brother had done, done to him and to the Dragon Temple. Had he succeeded in overthrowing the dragons? If so, why hadn't he come back for him yet? Did he fail? But if he failed, why hasn't Konahrik come and apologised to him?

He had all the time in the world to think about these questions. The pondering of what had happened, and why no one had come back for him yet. Maybe it hadn't been that long, that the darkness and the loneliness had tricked his mind into thinking it had been longer. Maybe they were way, whoever it was, to free him.

No matter who freed him, he wouldn't be them. They did this to him, on Kerreld's word alone. He didn't know why they didn't check. He didn't know why they believed his brother over him.

What did the others think? Valrika and Maevtta, and the other High Priests? They had been friends, more so than what Kerreld had been. He'd even been able to make Otar smile once, and that was near on impossible.

Why was Zahkriisos there?

Something bumped against the sarcophagus. He planted his hands on the sides of his prison to steady himself. It hadn't been much, almost imperceptible, but someone or something had touched the sarcophagus he had been trapped in for gods know how long. He took in a deep breath, his beat beat rising slightly as he felt the sarcophagus shutter. 

He raised his hands above him, a ball of sparks appearing between them. He winced away from the light, his eyes not used to it, as he felt more than heard the seal on his prison open. He pushed up, the ball of sparks slamming against the lid of the sarcophagus, sending it flying high into the chamber with a loud explosion. Using his feet to push himself up into a sitting position, he readied another sparks spell as the lid landed somewhere on the other side of the chamber, looking around wildly.

His eyes locked onto that of a Nede woman. She had brown hair that was currently in a bun, wearing brown leather armour that had lots of pockets and buckles on it. She held her sword up in defense, the blade glowing orange in the darkness of the chamber, a torch lying on the ground not far from her.

But as he looked into her eyes, she saw confusion. She lowered her sword slightly and said, "You're not like the others."

"What?" he asked, the first word he had spoken since he had given up screaming for help so long ago. He had forgotten what he sounded like, his voice so foreign to him now.

"You're not... dead."

He spun around, the sparks growing between his hands. On the other side of the sarcophagus was a grey skinned woman, a light hovering over her head. Her hair was a pure white, the left half of it shaved, the other half flopping down past her right ear. She was wearing skintight leather armour, coloured red and black in patches, with a sword on each hip and two more on the outside of each thigh. But the thing that shocked him the most was the fact that her eyes were a blood red. He'd never seen anyone like her before, though her pointed ears suggested she was a type of elf.

"What are you?" he asked her.

She looked taken aback. "Excuse me?"

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind. The spell in his hands fizzled out, and he looked back over at the Nede. "What are you two doing here? Were you sent to free me?"

"We could ask you the same thing," she said, raising her sword again. "How'd you get in there? The city was sealed off. No one's been here for a long time."

His eyes widened slightly, a deep sadness filling him. "They sealed the city?"

"Who are you?" the strange-skinned woman asked.

He turned back to her, not sure if he should. "Thayne Kjerunnsson," he said after a moment's pause. The name felt unfamiliar on his tongue. He hadn't used that name since long before he had been imprisoned. He'd always gone by his dragon name, Aagis.

"I'm Haleyni Teledyn, and I'm a _Dunmer_. Dun. Mer. It means Dark Elf. Haven't you seen one of my kind before?" she asked, face scrunched up.

He shook his head.

"Hmm," she hummed. She gestured to the Nede. "This is my wife, Kaielyssa Deseriene. She's a Breton."

 _A Breton?_ he thought, but didn't say. _What in Oblivion is a Breton?_

It was then he saw the corpse lying on the ground, but it wasn't like anything he'd ever seen before. The flesh was rotted, its clothes barely holding together. There was a greatsword lying nearby, and brackish blood was slowly seeping out a wound above its heart.

He almost threw up.

"What in Oblivion is _that_?" he asked, pushing himself out of the bottom of the sarcophagus and onto the edge, pointing at the corpse.

The Breton, Kaielyssa, looked down at it before looking up at him in confusion. "It's a draugr. The body of a long-dead ancient Nord coming back to life. I'm actually surprised there wasn't more, usually Nordic ruins are full of them, but there were only these two."

 _Ancient Nords. Nordic ruins_. He didn't like how she was saying these things so casually, like it was common knowledge and he was an idiot for not knowing it.

He swung his legs over the edge of the sarcophagus and ran out of the room. He heard Kaielyssa and Haleyni call after him, their footsteps following him, but he didn't care. He needed to see for himself.

The more he ran through the halls of Kollskka, the more he realised how right Kaielyssa was. The walls were crumbling, and entire sections of the city had been blocked off by fallen rubble. Sarcophagi had chunks missing out of them, there were weeds growing in the cracks in the ground, and all the people he had helped embalm and mummify had all turned into decayed corpses. As he got to the front of the city of the dead he had been assigned to all those years ago, he saw a tunnel with light on the other side.

He went through the tunnel, and came upon the small antechamber connected with the entrance, though the path up to the entrance was blocked off, another tunnel dug into the earth to his right. There was a wooden ladder in the middle of the room with a trapdoor on top that hadn't been there before, a dead Nord in furs lying in a pool of his own blood at the bottom.

Taking the ladder up, he pushed open the trapdoor and found himself in one of the watchtowers. He pushed himself to his feet, and his heart sank as he saw the top of it was open to the sky, the sun hanging there shining brightly. For the first time in forever, he felt the sun against his skin, and he would have enjoyed it, if his entire life wasn't a ruin around him.

He left the watchtower as Haleyni came out of the trapdoor, and he stared out at the plains that surrounded his home. The hill he had liked to stare at during sunsets was now resting underneath a city, a great big keep blocking his view of Monahven.

His legs gave out, and he fell to his knees next to the body of a Bosmer. As he stared out, he felt tears welling up in his eyes, threatening to spill out over his cheeks. He couldn't remember the last time he cried.

As he stared out at everything that had changed, he wondered if his brother knew exactly what he had done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thayne's back! Yay! But also no! Because everything has changed!
> 
> Stay tuned for next chapter! Shouldn't be too long before it's out.


	3. The Brother

Kaielyssa and Haleyni didn't know what to do as they watched Thayne stare out into the Whiterun tundra. Oblivion, they weren't sure how he had gotten into that sarcophagus when the ruin was sealed shut, and they had no idea how long he had been in there. Not knowing what a Dunmer was? They'd been around since the Battle of Red Mountain, and that was four thousand years ago.

Kaielyssa knelt down next to Thayne and placed a hand on his shoulder. He jumped, but he didn't say anything. He looked bone-dead tired, like he hadn't slept in centuries, and his tears were making marks in the dirt on his face. He needed sleep and a good bath, and she knew exactly where he could get it.

"We can help you figure out what happened," she said, "if you come with us."

"Where?" he asked. "Where would I go?"

"For starters, Whiterun," she told him. "I have a brother who's currently in Whiterun doing something for the College of Winterhold. I'm sure he'll take you there to get the Archmage to look you over and help out."

He sat there for a bit in silence before nodded. "Okay. But I have to get something first, from Kollskka."

She furrowed her brow in confusion. "Okay, but I don't know where Kollskka is."

"This city is Kollskka. I'm guessing the name's changed."

She nodded. "Yeah, it has. And sure, go ahead. Take your time."

He stood up and went back into the ruined tower and back into the ruin. She watched as he disappeared into the trapdoor, and Haleyni crouched down next to her.

"Are you sure we should be helping him?" she asked her wife, looking at the trapdoor he had disappeared into with suspicion. "I mean, we barely know the guy, and he was locked in a sarcophagus. You remember what happened in Ragnvald."

"This isn't like Ragnvald, My Love. Otar the Mad was decayed, and he floated. Thayne isn't like that, he looks like a normal Nord."

"Who just so happened to be locked in a sarcophagus at the end of a sealed crypt? There's no coincidence that he was in there."

Kaielyssa sighed. "I know, Haleyni, I know. I'm not saying we trust the guy, but we could at least help him. He's scared and confused. We don't know how long he's been in there. I doubt _he_ knows."

Haleyni was silent for a moment, before reluctantly bowing her head in agreement. "I guess you're right. If he ends up being a Dragon Priest, I'm turning him to ash."

Her wife giggled, reached over for her cheek. "I don't doubt you would." She leaned in for a kiss, her lips pressing against her wife's soft ones.

When they pulled back, Thayne was coming out of the trapdoor. There was a bulge in the pocket of his flowing robes, which she would have to replace while they were in Whiterun. They looked ancient. He brushed his brown hair out of his dark brown eyes as he squinted up at the sky. He still wasn't quite used to the sun yet.

He approached them and gave them a forced smile. It looked like he hadn't smiled in years with the pain that was on his face. "Okay," he said. "Which way to Whiterun?"

* * *

Whiterun wasn't like anything Thayne had seen before. The entire city was above ground, for one, while most cities he knew had at least a portion of it underground. There were humans and elves milling around together, and even some of the beast races, like Khajiit and, surprisingly, Orcs were wandering the streets in complete harmony. Men and women in leather armour and full-faced helmets were patrolling the streets, and the sound of children laughing and giggling were foreign to his ears.

"Come on," Kaielyssa said, walking down the main street. He followed, staring at the surroundings, trying to let it all sink in. The city looked old, but he didn't remember Whiterun being there.

How long had he been in that sarcophagus?

They made it to the Market District, which was even more packed than what the street had been. Kaielyssa led them to a building labelled 'Arcadia's Cauldron', and inside were shelves of alchemical ingredients pressed into the walls, an empty fire pit in the centre of the room, and an alchemy laboratory in one of the corners. Standing hunched over at the laboratory was a man whose hair, which went to his shoulders, was the same shade of brown as Kaielyssa's was. Thayne would hazard to guess that this was her brother.

"Daedras," Kaielyssa said, and the man jumped in surprise. The mortar and pestle that had been in his hand fell tot he ground, what looked like crushed up torchbug spilling out onto the floor. He held his hand to his chest as he turned around, leaning on the alchemy laboratory for support.

"Oblivion, Kaie, you almost gave me a heart attack," he said, out of breath. He bowed his head as he tried to catch his breath, breathing deeply. "What're you doing here? I thought you were going to explore Silent Moons Camp?" He looked at Haleyni, then raised eyebrow at Thayne. "Who's he?"

"We found him in Silent Moons Camp," Kaielyssa said, grinning. "Inside of a sarcophagus, in a sealed part of the city."

Daedras's eyes widened, and he approached Thayne, suddenly being able to breathe properly. He started closely looking at him, like he was a science experiment. "Really? How long was he in there for?"

Haleyni shrugged a shoulder. "We don't know. The place was in ruins, but he wasn't."

"Hmm."

He poked Thayne's cheek with his finger, who gave him a look of confusion as he did so.

"So why'd you bring him to me?" Daedras asked, turning to his sister.

"I thought that maybe you'd be able to bring him to the College, so that the Archmage can check him out, see how long he was in there for."

Daedras hummed again, stroking his chin. "Maybe? What's the last thing you remember?"

Thayne blinked in surprise. "Uh, being trapped in a sarcophagus by people I thought were my friends."

"That's rough, bud," Daedras muttered, not really paying attention. He turned to Kaielyssa. "Yeah, I can take him if you want. And if he wants to, as well. Maybe I'll even get extra credit for this."

"Because that's all that matters," Kaielyssa said, rolling her eyes. "Extra credit, and not helping someone who was imprisoned in a sarcophagus."

"How do you know he wasn't put in there because he did something horrible?" he asked off-handedly. "Maybe he had been a Dragon Priest, you guys know how ruthless they were."

Thayne's heart started racing. He had been put in there because people _thought_ he had done something horrible, but it had actually been his identical twin brother that had done it. And he had been a Dragon Priest. Was that what they called High Priests nowadays? No one he knew had ever called him a Dragon Priest before. And why did he say that like it was a bad thing?

"Dragon Priest?" he asked cautiously, not sure if he should say anything at all.

"You know, the priests of the Dragon Cult that lived thousands of years ago? They all had a mask they wore everywhere?"

Thayne did his best not to express just how faint he felt. The Dragon _Cult?_ Since when had the Temple been a _cult?_ Since when had High Priests been called Dragon Priests?

Since when had he been in that sarcophagus for thousands of years?

_No_ , he thought to himself. _He must be mistaken_.

Despite the uneasiness he felt in the pit of his stomach, he decided that Daedras didn't know what he was talking about.

"Right," he said. "Where's this College you guys have been talking about?"

"In Winterhold, north-east of here," Daedras said, lazily pointing up and to the left. "And hey, maybe you can learn some magic while you're there. The College needs as many students as it can get."

Thayne nodded. In the back of his mind, a voice was telling him that staying with these people was dangerous. They were thoroughly misinformed about what the Dragon Order was about, and if they found out he had been a High Priest before he had been locked in that sarcophagus, there was no way they were going to keep being friendly to him.

But there was a second voice, a louder voice. It was telling him that these three people looked familiar, though he couldn't say how. He'd been getting that feeling all day, but now that Daedras was there too, he was sure he had seen these people before.

He wanted to know why.


	4. Around Whiterun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a filler chapter, but I didn't want to go straight from talking with Daedras to going to Winterhold. So here, a chapter about Whiterun. Enjoy.

Darkness surrounded Thayne as he laid in his metal prison, with nothing but stale air to keep him company. He rested his hand against the lid of the sarcophagus, his hope of ever escaping having left him long ago. He didn't know how long he had been in there, how long he _would_ be in there. His nails grazed the metal. They hadn't grown, and neither had his hair. Something was keeping him in status, keeping him awake.

Keeping him the same as he had been when he entered the sarcophagus.

He hated the darkness, but he hated closing his eyes more. When he did he saw his brother, his traitorous twin, grinning down at him as the lid was placed above him and sealed him inside for what felt like an eternity. Maybe it had been an eternity. But why was he still alive.

He didn't only see his brother. He saw flashes of images. He saw an Ayleid wielding powerful necromantic magic, waves of the dead by his side, though it had been a while since he had seen them. What he saw the most was a blazing fire, a leather-bound hand reaching out from it, beckoning him forward. Daggers flew out of the darkness, hitting the wall next to him, and Morokei, looking withered and ancient, surrounded by a force field.

He always said that he was sorry.

Thayne sat up in bed, sweat dripping off him in rivulets, his chest heaving as he sucked in heavy breaths. He looked around the dark room that Kaielyssa had rented for him, as he had no money, and immediately lit a light in his hand. He stared at the orb, wondering what his dream meant. He couldn't remember most of the images he had seen, but he did remember the last one, right before he had woken up: a woman with impossibly long black hair holding a finger to her lips, one eye as dark as the night sky, the other the brightest blue on a cloudless day. 

He got out of bed and stumbled into the hall. There was a low candle burning on a small nightstand, the flickering flame the only light available. He managed to get downstairs, where only a few people were sitting. There was a man in full armour sitting on one of the long seats, his head thrown back with a loud snore coming out of his open mouth. A Redguard woman was cleaning a cup behind the bar, deep bags under her eyes from many sleepless nights. An Imperial woman was reading a book at one of the small tables in the corner, squinting in the candlelight as she held the book close to her face. A Nord woman was still drinking.

Thayne sat down next to the sleeping man in armour. He felt a lot better after his sleep, but he couldn't get the image of the woman out of his head. He wondered what it could mean, who the woman was, but was distracted from his thoughts by the Redguard barmaid, who asked if he wanted anything to eat or drink. He shook his head, but thanked her.

After a couple minutes of sitting by the dying fire, he decided to have a walk of the city. Sure, it was dark, but he was a very powerful High Priest--at least, he was before his brother had stuck him in that sarcophagus for gods know how long. He could take care of himself if someone tried to harm him.

The cool air was nice on his face as he left the Bannered Mare, hands deep in his pockets. Despite the two moons being high in the sky, a deep darkness settling over the city, there were plenty of people out and about. Drunkards were roaming the streets, the guards on duty too tired or too lazy to do anything about them. There were women leading men off into side streets or inns. And there were people just wandering around, taking a night stroll like Thayne was.

The noise and the people died down the further away he got from the Market District. There were houses pushed together, both one story and two, with the windows dark, all of their residents probably fast asleep. There were one or two that still had their lights on, doing something in the dead of night.

As Thayne passed what was labelled the Temple of Kynareth, he realised he didn't know what the time was. The sky had started to lighten, with more people being on the streets he had just been wandering through for a good hour or so. He even saw a child, bleary-eyed from waking up that early, being ferried around by her mother. 

He got back to the Bannered Mare, the sky considerably lighter than what it started at, and sat down at one of the tables. His stomach was grumbling, and he wanted food. He raised a hand to call the Redguard barmaid over, who was still on duty, and asked for some breakfast, anything would do. She nodded, and headed into the kitchens. Almost as soon as she did, another woman, this one Imperial and a bit older, came out from the employee area putting on a smock identical to the one the Redguard woman was wearing. She started going around the people who were there, seeing if they needed anything.

Daedras came downstairs, then, arms raised high as he stretched away his sleep. He yawned as he made his way over to Thayne, plonking down on the seat next to him, head in hand, eyes half opened.

"Early morning?" he asked Thayne, yawning again.

Thayne nodded. "I went for a walk."

"Good on you. I can never do things right after waking up." He yawned again. "I am not a morning person."

"Then why are you up at the crack of dawn?"

"Because we need to get to Winterhold. Trust me, normally I wake up five minutes before lessons start."

The Redguard woman came back with a pastry of some kind, and a tankard of ale. Thayne thanked her, and she smiled at him before leaving to take care of another customer.

"What is this?" Thayne asked, poking the pastry with a fork. The top split open, letting out what looked like cooked apple.

Daedras glanced at it. "Apple dumpling. It's nice."

Haleyni sat down at the table, looking immaculate in her skintight leather armour. 

Daedras half-glared at her as she took Thayne's ale, sipping from the cup. "How do you always look perfect in the morning?"

"Because I'm me."

"Haha. Give me the real reason."

"That _is_ the real reason, you just don't like it."

He pouted, and rested his head on the table.

As Thayne started eating his dumpling, he smiled. Maybe he'd come to like these people, to know them like they know each other. But for now, they were strangers, and he was in a strange time. A time he didn't want to stay in unless there was no way back.

He'd show Konahrik and the others he wasn't the traitor. He'd show them that they were wrong about hi, that they had the wrong twin.

He'd even tell them how the future was like, that the dragons reigned for however long he was imprisoned for.

But the words didn't sit right with him. He hadn't seen a single priest or deacon throughout the city of Whiterun, and if the dragons ruled there wouldn't be a Temple of Kynareth, not out in the open like that. And what Daedras had said about the Dragon Order--he had called it a _cult_ \--he truly wondered what the world had become since before the sarcophagus.


	5. On to Winterhold

The snow started falling three days into their journey, and Thayne was mesmerised by it. Sure, he'd seen snow before, he grew up in a city high in the mountains. But it had been a long time since he had seen it, since he had felt it on his skin. He didn't care that they were only half a day's journey from Winterhold, where it apparently got so cold it regularly freezes people to death, he pulled off the outer layering of the new robes Kaielyssa and Haleyni had bought him before they left Whiterun, and let the snow touch his skin. It didn't take him long before he was pulling it back on, his teeth chattering, but he didn't regret it.

Winterhold could not be classed as a city. Sure, there were people there, and buildings, but not many. Thayne would barely class it as a town. It looked like half the city had disappeared, with the skeletons of houses standing on the edge of a sheer drop into a chasm below.

"Don't let all the houses fool you," Daedras said, pulling his cloak around him tighter. "Most of them are empty."

Despite it being midday, they saw a grand total of three people on the streets as they travelled down the main road, towards a large building whose bridge was built at the end of the road. An Altmer woman was leaning against a stone pillar at the start of the bridge, and heavy cloak hanging from her shoulders and a fire spell dancing around her fingertips. She looked up as the four of them approached, dismissing the flame spell and letting her hand fall to her side.

"You know non members aren't allowed to enter the College, Daedras, not even your twin sister," she said.

Thayne almost froze at those words. Kaielyssa and Daedras were twins? Why hadn't they said anything? Then again, Thayne hadn't mentioned _his_ twin brother yet, and he doubted he ever would.

Daedras gave the Altmer a smile. "C'mon, Faralda. This is a special occasion. We need to talk to the Archmage."

She raised an eyebrow. "All of you?"

He nodded.

She sighed, pushing herself off the pillar. "Alright, but if I get in trouble for this, you're doing all my laundry for a month."

He grinned at her. "Deal." 

Thayne got the idea that they did this regularly.

She wiped her arm to the side, letting them pass. When they did, Thayne heard the flame spell get cast, and a quick look over his shoulder made him see that she was playing with the fire again.

The bridge was windy, and there were chunks missing out of it at random intervals, with only beams of wood to fix them at the moment. It spanned the gap between the edge of Winterhold and the College of Winterhold, which rested upon a large rock that sat a bit higher than the city, so the mages inside were always looking down on the non-mages. At least, that's what Thayne thought.

The large iron gates opened automatically as they approached, and Thayne could see that the College was about as populated as the city was--as in, there were hardly any people there, from what he saw. There was a Khajiit speaking with a Dunmer, both of them wrapped up in thick robes and cloaks, heading across the courtyard from the large building in the centre, towards one of the smaller round buildings connected to the circular stone walls surrounding the College. A Breton woman was yelling at an Altmer man wearing black and gold robes with no cloak in sight right outside the main doors. Thayne wasn't sure what it was about, as he couldn't hear them over the snowfall that had picked up since they got to Winterhold.

It was very warm inside, so warm Thayne took off his cloak. They were standing in a foyer of some kind, a metal gate leading into a large circular chamber. They didn't go in there, though; Daedras ushered them to a door on the left, behind which was a staircase that led up. At the top was a door, upon which Daedras knocked loudly.

It opened by itself, and they took that to mean enter. It was a large chamber, looking almost like the shape of a keyhole, with a long rectangular area connected to a large circular area, which was mostly full of different plants and flora.

A Dunmer man was sitting on a chair not far from the doorway, flicking through a book titled _Mysticism: The Unfathomable Voyage_. He looked up as they entered, lowering the book. He looked old, with a long grey beard growing off his chin, and there were deep wrinkles on his face.

"Only one of you is a student here," he said, narrowing his eyes at them. "What is your purpose here?"

Kaielyssa stepped forward, bowing slightly. "Archmage Aren, I am Kaielyssa Deseriene. I'm Daedras's twin sister. My wife, Haleyni, and I were searching a Nordic ruin north of Whiterun when we found a sealed off part of the city. At the end of the city was a sarcophagus, and inside the city was, well..."

She trailed off, motioning to Thayne. Her face looked uncertain, like she wasn't sure what she was to say next.

Thayne stepped forward. "My name is Thayne Kjerunnsson. I don't know how long or how I was able to survive in that sarcophagus, but somehow I was able to."

The Dunmer, Archmage Aren, stood up. Stroking his chin, he peered at Thayne, circling him slowly. He lifted up one of Thayne's arms, studying it, before letting it drop. He hummed as he thought.

"This is most unusual," he muttered, perplexed. "I've never seen magic like this before. What year are you from?"

Thayne shook his head. "I don't remember. It's been so long."

"And you were awake the whole time?"

He nodded.

"I believe you were put in a status, but that is extremely powerful magic. I don't know why anyone would want to put it on you. Did you do something horrible?"

"No. But they thought I did."

"And who is 'they'?"

It was a valid question, but Thayne didn't want to answer it. On the three days they had been travelling, he hadn't seen or heard a single dragon, and usually they were everywhere, making sure the mortals did as they were told. The more Thayne learned about the time he had been placed in, the more he realised just how much had changed. He wondered how much of it had been because of his brother.

"I don't know," he lied. It was the best thing he could do at the moment, while he figured out everything with the Dragon Order, and where the dragons had gone.

Archmage Aren hummed again, still stroking his chin. "This is quite perplexing. I'd like you to stay at the College for now, so I can run tests on you. What city were you entombed in?"

"Kollskka," Thayne told him, "though they've been calling it Silent Moons Camp."

He nodded. "Yes, I always believed there to be more to that ruin than what met the eye. I'll send some people to excavate it, see if they can find anything you might have missed. For now, see Mirabelle Ervine. She'll get you set up here with a room and a timetable, if you so wish to join the lectures. They're very fascinating."

Thayne nodded. "Thank you, Archmage Aren. I want to figure this out just as much as you do."

He hummed in agreement, but something in his eye made Thayne think he didn't believe him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thayne's keeping things from Savos, I wonder what's going to happen next ;)


	6. Welcome to College

Mirabelle Ervine ended up being the woman that had been yelling at the Altmer when they arrived at the College of Winterhold. The Altmer was long gone, but she was still standing in the cold, bundled under what looked like two sets of robes and three cloaks, reading off a scroll. Daedras called her name, making her look up as Kaielyssa and Haleyni left the College for someplace warm to crash before they started on their journey to wherever they were going.

"A new student?" Mirabelle shouted over the wind. "Are you sure? We just got a bunch in last week."

Daedras nodded. "We just talked to the Archmage about it. He said to talk to you."

She nodded as well, tucking her scroll into her robes. "Of course. Let's get out of this infernal snow."

She led the way to one of the circular buildings next to the entrance of the College, where Thayne had seen the Khajiit and Dunmer walk into earlier. She closed the door behind them, shirking one of her cloaks and hanging it up on a peg on the wall. She led them in, showing Thayne to a room on the first floor.

"This will be your room," she told him. Please be quiet while you're in here, as other students will be either sleeping, studying, or doing experiments in their own rooms."

Thayne nodded, and Daedras told him that he'll be in his own room, which was on the next floor.

The Hall of Countenance, on the other side, is where the more advanced mages sleep. There you will find an enchanting table as well as an alchemy laboratory if you ever need them. The teachers will also do one-on-one sessions with you, and give you spells, but for a price. Otherwise, I'll get you a timetable of when the lectures are on in the Hall of the Elements. There are also some robes you can choose from in the wardrobe in your room, and feel free to personalise it to your liking. Are there any questions?"

He shook his head. "Not that I can think of. Thank you, Master Ervine."

"It's no problem at all. Come see me or any of the other staff if you have any questions at all. Next lecture is in an hour, led by Urag gro-Shub."

She left, leaving Thayne alone in his room. He closed the door and shed his layers, leaving only his robes on, and threw them into the wardrobe. He saw the robes already in there, deciding to have a look through them later as he kicked off his shoes. His feet hurt from three days of non-stop walking, and he was sure he had blisters on the bottom of his feet. He sat down on the bed, which was surprisingly comfortable, though it was likely he was going to end up sleeping on the ground. A long time lying on metal makes you used to it, and when he slept at the Bannered Mare it felt like he was going to fall right through the bed. But it was nice to sit on it.

He didn't have any belongings, except what he had gone back to get from his sarcophagus. He pulled it out now, not sure what he thought about the mask that had been pressed against his leg in his prison. The malachite shone just as brightly and clean as it had when he was given it, the enchantment stopping it from rusting and turning dour. He turned it over, moving the fabric out of the way. His dragon name, Aagis, was carved into the metal in the language of the dragons, carved out by Konahrik before she had given it to him. He had seen the carving out of the corner of his eye for most of two years, before he had been stuffed in that sarcophagus by his brother.

Thinking about that time made him yearn to be back. He liked it there, liked the familiarity of it. Sure, he had power, but that was only because his twin brother was the Dragonborn. He was certain the only reason he was made a High Priest so quickly was because of him. Usually people because High Priests in their thirties, and Thayne was only twenty-nine.

Well, he _was_ twenty-nine, at least physically. But how old he actually was, he had no idea.

He missed Maevtta, and Valrika. He missed going to classes with them, missed annoying them with how he and Kerreld treated each other. He missed Bromjunaar, missed Kollskka, missed _everything_. If he had the chance to go back, he would, without hesitation. But as far as he knew, there _wasn't_ a way back.

Unless he used an Elder Scroll.

But where would he _find_ an Elder Scroll, let alone actually be able to keep it on him long enough to figure out how to use it. They liked to move around a lot, and never stayed in one place. That was off the table.

He stretched out on the bed, his eyes drooping closed. He was still tired from all the years of being awake, and he'd been able to stave it off because he had been doing things, but now that he wasn't, it was coming back to him. He was probably going to miss his first lecture, but he didn't care. All he wanted was sleep.

* * *

The next day, Daedras showed Thayne the Arcanaeum, the library that is run by an Orc name Urag gro-Shub and will will kill you if you hurt a book in any way. Thayne was impressed by the collection, but it was nothing compared to the massive one at Bromjunaar. For a second he wondered if Bromjunaar was still around, or if it had another name. Or, if it had fallen into ruin like Kollskka had.

The Orc was gruff, but left them alone to their own devices. Daedras went through the many shelves to see if there were any Thayne recognised, but none of them stood out. After a while he had started giving Thayne books for him to read in his downtime, stacking them in the Nord's arms as he followed Daedras around. Soon enough, he couldn't see over the pile, and had to put them on a desk to give his arms a break from carrying them around.

"This one's about Dragon Priests," Daedras said, handing him a book with a yellow cover.

Thayne faltered for a second before taking the book off him. _The Guardian and the Traitor_. He paled, opening the book to see if his name was in it. It wasn't, and ended up being a book of legend rather than fact, about how the island of Solstheim had separated from mainland Skyrim. He didn't even realise it _had_ disconnected from the mainland. He just assumed it was still there.

"I don't think I'm allowed to borrow this many books," he said, looking at the stack on the table and the five books Daedras had given him since _The Guardian and the Traitor_.

Daedras stopped, a purple book labelled _Immortal Blood_ halfway to being put on the pile in Thayne's arms. He hummed, just realising that, and sighed deeply. "Uhm, I can make a list for you, but I suggest just going through the entire library shelf by shelf, it's what I'm doing, and I'm currently over on the other side of the Arcanaeum. And Urag becomes nice enough when you're always here. I'm just so interested in history and what happened before I was alive. And I'm sure you want to know what's happened since you were put in that sarcophagus."

A Bosmer man looked at them strangely from three tables over, but Thayne just ignored him.

"Write me a list and I'll start with them," Thayne told Daedras. "But I think I'm going to start with _The Guardian and the Traitor_."

He nodded. "That's a good one. Really shows you that not all Dragon Priests were horrible beings whose only concern was power."

He went over to Urag to get some parchment and a quill and inkpot, leaving Thayne to stand there with a stack of books in his arms, thinking over what Daedras had just said.

Were the High Priests the horrible ones? Was _he_ a horrible person because of it?


	7. First Lesson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fourth chapter in a day! I'm rolling out these words!
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!

A couple days later, Thayne found himself standing on the far side of the Hall of the Elements, his fellow pupils standing next to him. He'd seen them around, Brelyna, the Dunmer, being the only one to introduce herself. There was the Khajiit, arms crossed over his arms, and a Nord man that was impatient to start the lesson.

So far, the lessons had been things Thayne already knew, but he wasn't about to let them know that. He was fine with people thinking he was unassuming, except for the whole being trapped in a sarcophagus thing.

The teacher, an older Nord named Tolfdir, came into the hall, a spring in his step despite the snowstorm outside. He took his place in front of them, a smile on his face. "Today we are going to be learning about wards and safety."

Thayne's fellow students groaned, and Tolfdir's smile faded. "Now, now, class, wards are a very useful spell to know. They block magical spells and enchantments on weapons, and even solid objects if the spell is of a high enough power. Safety is a very important thing, as there are innumerous amounts of risk involved when performing magic and a ward can help block an enemy's magic."

"We know the risks of magic," Brelyna said. "We wouldn't be here if we didn't."

"J'zargo wants to learn something practical," the Khajiit said in a thick Elsweyr accent. "Like a fireball, or a lightning spell."

"We will get there," Tolfdir said, putting his hands up to calm them down, "but you just got here. Before we do anything we need to make sure we know how to defend ourselves."

"We could defend ourselves by attacking first," the Nord said.

Thayne stayed quiet. He knew how useful a ward could be. It had actually saved his life several times.

Daedras didn't say anything, either, but he was nodding along to what the others were saying.

Tolfdir sighed, looking deflated. He looked at Thayne. "You've been very quiet. What are your thoughts on this?"

He didn't expect to be picked on, but he took the opportunity to teach his classmates. "I think we should learn about wards and magical safety. I know I would be dead right now if I hadn't used wards."

Daedras gave him a strange look as Tolfdir beamed at him. "Finally, a student that knows the importance of safety. We'll do a practical, as that's what most of you want, but you will be practicing with wards. What's your name, boy?"

"Thayne Kjerunnsson."

He nodded. "Thayne, please step on that symbol over there, and I'll stand here. Everyone else, please make way. Thayne, please put up a ward, and don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

Thayne raised a hand, a ward appearing as a magical wave through the air, covering him from head to foot. Tolfdir lit a flame spell in his hand, and sent a fireball at the centre of the ward. It hit the ward, dissipating almost immediately, and he let the ward spell drop.

"Now, I want you guys to pair up and practice wards. After that, I have an announcement for all of you."

Thayne ended up being paired with J'zargo, who was trigger happy with flame spells. Every time Thayne dropped a ward to replenish his magicka pool, the Khajiit sent another fireball, causing him to quickly put up another ward. It came to the point where Thayne shot a lightning spell at him, and he had to put up his own ward in defense.

After about thirty minutes of this, with all the students being exhausted and drained magically, Tolfdir, who had been supervising, got them all together for the announcement.

"Now, I've just cleared it with the Archmage, but tomorrow we are going to be going through an excavation of Saarthal, the first Nordic settlement in Skyrim. I'm very excited to see what we can find there. Meet me at the top of the bridge at dawn tomorrow. I'll see you then. Class dismissed."

He left the Hall of the Elements as the students dragged their feet, wanting to sit down or sleep. Thayne was confused as to why they were going to Saarthal, until he realised that the city must be in ruins, like Kollskka was.

He had visited Saarthal once as a child. His uncle lived there, and showed him and Kerreld around the city while his daughters were in school. It was very big, with a large part of it being dedicated to the dead.

He stopped Daedras as he pulled out the list of books he had given him, and asked him which ones were about Saarthal.

"Night of Tears is a big one," he said. "Hey, what was that about the ward thing? I didn't know you were a mage before."

Thayne shrugged a shoulder, shoving the list into the pocket of his robes. "I didn't want you to think I was better than you."

He didn't let Daedras say anything. He made his way up to the Arcanaeum and found _Night of Tears_. He sat in a corner and started to read it, hoping that it would lend something to what had happened to the once-great city of Saarthal.

* * *

It took three hours to walk to Saarthal through snow that was three-inches deep, but luckily it wasn't snowing. Tolfdir had told them that someone had unearthed the entrance to Saarthal not too long ago, and came to the College to help with excavating it, in exchange that they could take anything enchanted they find. The College had agreed, and sent Arniel Gane to head the excavation. Tolfdir had then asked if it was alright if he took his students there, and the Archmage said yes. So there they were, trekking in the snow, to get to an excavation for a learning experience.

They got to the ruin and entered, the inside being just as cold as the outside. Tolfdir started talking about the place and what they would be doing, but Thayne was distracted when Onmund, the Nord man in his class, scoffed.

"What's wrong?" Thayne asked.

"We shouldn't be here," he said. "It's a sacred place, and sealed for a reason. A tragedy happened here and we're just going to look through it? No one here cares about the history of a place, just if there's magic around."

"Saarthal actually did have quite a lot of magic," Thayne told him. "The Dragon Priests came here often."

He furrowed his brow. "How would you know?"

Thayne hesitated. "Uh, I read it in a book a while ago. I don't remember which."

"Right," he said sourly. "I thought you'd understand, being a Nord."

"Understand what?"

"Understand how wrong this is! This is our history, Thayne, and we're letting mages trample through it."

Thayne didn't say anything, because the next thing he would say was that Onmund was wrong. It wasn't Thayne's history. The Night of Tears was tragic, but Thayne was born before it had happened, had been imprisoned by his brother before it happened. He knew Saarthal as the living city it was, not the ruin it is now. It's still fresh in his mind, despite the rot and ruin that currently surrounded him. This wasn't the city he knew.

The group stopped, and Tolfdir started delegating tasks. He told Thayne to go see what Arniel Gane needed doing, and pointed him deeper into the ruin. He went, glad to be away from Onmund, and searched for Arniel Gane.

He found the man leaning over an alchemy laboratory that had been brought in, and he told Thayne to look for anything magical in the vicinity. He started searching, looking high and low for anything that pops out as magical. He found three rings on the floor, all three of them pulsing a dull red against a yellowish-grey floor. He pocketed them as he approached a necklace hanging on the wall. He grabbed that, too, going to put it in his pocket and look for more when he heard the sound of metal scraping against sound.

He turned around to see that the area he was in had been closed off, metal bars with spikes on the top that hit the roof trapping him in. He grabbed at the bars, trying to shake them and see if he could get them loose, but they wouldn't budge.

He was trapped.


	8. The Depths of Saarthal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've started to post a series based on Oblivion that's set in the same universe as this one. It's called 'Home Once Lost' if you wanna check it out! Once I've written more of both series I'm gonna put them both in a series in reading order so y'all can easily read them together.

Thayne started to feel panic as he grabbed at the bars, trying to get out, trying to be free. Tolfdir and Daedras came around the corner as Arniel Gane looked up from the alchemy laboratory he had been working at.

"What in Oblivion was that noise?" Tolfdir asked.

"I took an amulet off the wall and now I'm trapped!" Thayne cried, his breathing getting rapid as his fear of being trapped kicked in. He didn't even know he had that fear, but being locked in a sarcophagus for an unspecified amount of time with the world completely changing while you're inside definitely makes you get new fears.

"If this was caused because you took the amulet off the wall, maybe they're connected," Tolfdir said, rubbing his beard in thought. "Try putting it on, see what that does."

"Didn't you give us a lecture about safety _yesterday?_ "

"Sometimes we do have to take risks, Thayne."

The last time he took a risk, he ended up being put in a sarcophagus by his twin brother. But he had to do something.

He took the amulet and put it on, letting it rest on his chest. A red light started pulsing between the amulet and the wall, going from one to the other. He raised his hand, a ball of lightning forming around it, and sent it at the wall. It was blasted into pieces, and the metals bars slid back into the ground. But Thayne wasn't paying attention to that.

Behind the wall that had been blasted in was a tunnel. He looked down the tunnel, but it snakes away from him, too much to be able to see far down it.

Tolfdir came up behind him, just as confused as he was. "Well, that's peculiar. That's not in any records I've seen for Saarthal."

"What do you think it is?" Daedras asked, poking his head up between Thayne and Tolfdir.

"Maybe it's a sealed off part of the city," Thayne said, swallowing a bit of bile that was rising up the back of his throat. "The ancient Nords did that sometimes when they wanted to either seal someone in or erase something that had happened in the city."

Tolfdir nodded while Daedras looked at him with a strange look on his face. Thayne could hear his unspoken question: _Is that what happened with you?_

"What do we do about it?" Thayne asked, avoiding Daedras's questioning eyes.

Tolfdir was quiet for a moment, thinking of what to do. After a minute of silence, he raised an eyebrow and looked at the both of them. "I think this will be a good learning opportunity for the both of you. Let's explore it."

Daedras's eyes lit up, but Thayne felt a bit queasy. Something happened in that part of the city, and they were about to unleash it on themselves and others. If they couldn't stop it...

He didn't have time to think about it, because Tolfdir and Daedras were already in the tunnel, calling out for him to follow. Swallowing a lump in his throat, he followed them.

The tunnel ended in a small chamber, with a standing sarcophagus on each of the three remaining walls. Daedras frowned when he saw there was no other way to go. "Well that was disappointing. Why would they--"

A blue wave shot through the chamber, Daedras and Tolfdir freezing in place. Thayne blinked, surprised that a Psijic's magic was being used in a ruined city in Skyrim's frozen heart. A couple seconds later, an Altmer appeared, wearing the robes of a Psijic sorcerer.

" _Hold, High Priest, and listen well._ "

Thayne paled, taking a step back towards the tunnel he had just come out of. He glanced over at the frozen bodies of his teacher and classmate, and hoped they couldn't hear this.

" _You have set in motion a series of events that cannot be stopped. Your actions here today will be judged, depending on what you do with what is in front of you. We have told you this because the Psijic Order believes in you. Take care, High Priest, you alone have the potential to prevent disaster. We will be watching._ "

The Altmer disappeared, and Daedras and Tolfdir started moving again, the blue haze dissipating.

"--have a secret tunnel if all it leads to is a dead end?"

Tolfdir frowned at Thayne, head tilting to the side. "Did something happen, Thayne?"

"I just got a vision," he said, "from the Psijic Order."

His eyes widened. "The Psijic Order! There's nothing about the Psijics written in anything about Saarthal--why would one appear _here?_ "

"What did he say?" Daedras asked.

Thayne breathed heavily for a second. "That there was danger ahead, and that I set in motion a series of events that can't be stopped. I don't know what that means, but... it doesn't sound good."

"That means that there's a way forward, maybe through one of these," he said. He approached the nearest sarcophagus and tapped the lid gently with a finger. After a couple of seconds of nothing, he tapped again. This time, the lid fell on him, pushing him to the ground.

A shambling corpse came out of the sarcophagus, squishing Daedras underneath the metal lid. It looked like one of those draugr Kaielyssa had pointed at just after he had been freed.

Knowing that it could be someone he knew, he let his magicka pool in his hands, lightning forming balls around them. He threw a lightning bolt at its chest, making its body spasm before falling to the ground. The other two sarcophagi opened up, and he sent another lightning bolt at the second draugr while Tolfdir cast a skin hardening spell, frying the last draugr into crispy meat.

Thayne let his spell dissipate as he looked at the hall behind the sarcophagi across from the tunnel, leading to the right.

"Can someone help me?" Daedras struggled to say. Thayne cast a telekinesis spell and threw off the sarcophagus lid and the draugr, before lifting him up from the back of his robes. He let the spell go when Daedras was flat on his feet. He blinked for a second, confused, but smiled at Thayne. "Thanks."

Tolfdir furrowed his brow. "You know telekinesis?" he asked quizzically.

Thayne felt his face heat up. "Uh, yeah. I was one of the best mages in my city before coming to the College." He wasn't sure if Tolfdir knew about Thayne's situation, so he decided not to say anything about it.

"I'll have to see what you're capable of, then," he said, smiling. "Wouldn't want a competent mage like you learning the basics you already know."

His face flared up more, and let Tolfdir go through the sarcophagus first. He avoided Daedras's questioning stare, instead looking down at one of the draugr while the Breton went through the hole, and then he went through.

The hall was short, with a staircase that ended at a closed gate. There was a lever next to it, which Daedras pulled, and the gate opened. They entered a large chamber, used for burials of important people, judging by the sarcophagi on the walls and the ones in the ceiling, which had to be put up there with magic. These were probably previous owners of Saarthal or, more than likely, their families and friends.

"I've never seen anything like this in Nordic Ruins before," Tolfdir marvelled, staring up at the ceiling in awe.

Right after he said that, the sound of sarcophagi lids falling onto stone filled the air around them, and looking around Thayne saw there were seven draugr climbing out of their tombs. He cast lightning bolt in one hand, stoneskin in the other. He cast the latter spell, replacing it with another lightning bolt to supercharge his spell.

A draugr came sprinting at him, axe raised above his head, and Thayne shot a bolt of lightning at it, shooting it backwards into the wall, a charred circle on its chest. Daedras sent a fireball at another, burning it to a crisp as Thayne managed to kill three more draugr. Tolfdir downed the others, and Thayne looked around to see if there were any others. There weren't.

"This place is fascinating," Tolfdir said in wonderment. "You two continue on without me, I'll catch up. I want to study this place a bit more."

Thayne didn't really want to leave Tolfdir alone in a place like this, but he couldn't doubt that Tolfdir had skills. He could defend himself if any more draugr woke up.

Opening up the two gates that led them further into Saarthal, Thayne and Daedras continued without their teacher.


End file.
